Newspapers Setting Wrong Kind Of Ad Sales Records

Fitz: The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) has been tracking the newspaper industry’s quarterly ad revenue results since 1971. Never have newspapers done worse than the quarter just behind us.

The NAA says total print and online ad revenue in the third quarter of 2008 plunged 18.11% from the year-ago period, a decline of not-quite $2 billion.

Newspapers set another record, too, by contracting for six straight quarters. Classified revenues -- down a sickening 30.85% in Q3 2008 on huge declines that reached 43.6% in help-wanted -- fell for the seventh straight quarter, and is down nine of the last 11 quarters.

Retail fell for the eighth consecutive quarter -- and national has now been down every quarter since the end of 2005. That’s 15 in a row.

The NAA let this latest bad news slip on the afternoon of Thanksgiving eve, so we’re indebted to Alan Mutter for pointing them out. His “Reflections of a Newsosaur” blog makes a chilling observation about the results:

The performance in the third quarter was affected only partially by the worldwide financial panic that froze the credit markets in mid-September, throttling the already waning demand for hiring, auto sales and home purchases.

The outlook for the final period of the year is worse, when the three classified verticals are likely to experience the full impact of the economic meltdown.